Vanquishing Prolonged Pain After Tooth Extraction
When you have a problematic tooth that needs removal or extraction, your dentist will make it a tolerable procedure with the use of anesthesia. Nevertheless, the effects of the anesthesia will wear off after a few hours and you’ll be confronted with pain where the tooth was removed. The pain may be similar to a toothache but slightly different. Normally, it should subside within three days. In the event it lasts longer than that, then you could be dealing with something else. Experiencing pain from a dental emergency, you might wonder, can general doctors offer urgent dental relief? |drhomedoctorsperth.com.au/about-us/. Visit this website to find out more.
Tooth Extraction Healing Process
To deal with the inevitable pain subsequent to tooth extraction, your dentist may recommend painkillers if you are an adult or ice cream for kids. As suggested earlier, if things go as planned, the pain should subside within three days. During those three days, you should avoid any activity that may disturb the area the tooth was removed. Such activities include but are not limited to:
- Anything that may cause strain to the body or intensely increase blood flow; e.g. weightlifting, running, etc.
- Spitting forcefully
- Smoking
- Using straws aggressively
- Anything that interferes with hormones
Meanwhile, you should eat light meals and take care not to disturb the healing area. Use a bag of ice in case of any swelling but don’t hold it there for too long to prevent a case of brain freeze. Take painkillers with moderation to ease the pain. However, don’t overdo it with the painkillers because they are still drugs, and if handled carelessly, you’ll have other problems (side effects) to deal with. More importantly, take at least three days off to allow the wound to heal.
The End of the Ghost Tooth Menace
Prolonged pain after a tooth extraction is a sign that something is not right with the healing process. If it has been more than three days and the pain is still unbearable, it could be a sign of infection or a dry socket.
The infection could be bacterial, which means you’ll need to go back to your dentist for further treatment. Anti-bacterial mouthwashes can also help prevent the infection. Check out this review of the leading mouthwash brands for further information.
A dry socket is a situation that develops when the area the tooth was extracted fails to form a blood clot, or the blood clot forms but is somehow removed through activities like those highlighted earlier (under tooth extraction healing process). You may not know it but your dentist will be able to tell when you have a dry socket.
After tooth extraction, you should take care of the area the tooth was removed to prevent the development of any complications. However, sometimes complications will still develop regardless of how well you take care of the healing area. For instance, women have a higher chance of developing a dry socket due to their innate hormonal changes during menstruation, which may affect the formation of the blood clot that assists with the healing process. To stay safe, if symptoms persist after three days, seek medical attention.
